


Nano

by ATongueTiedWriter



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/F, Mind Control, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 05:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11799732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ATongueTiedWriter/pseuds/ATongueTiedWriter
Summary: Jack is dead, and Kara isn’t. In the split second it takes to make that decision, Lena thinks she’s prepared to live with the consequences.She isn’t.Because things go missing from evidence all the time. But things normally aren’t nano robot mind-control devices.





	Nano

Jack is dead, and Kara isn’t. In the split second it takes to make that decision, Lena thinks she’s prepared to live with the consequences.

(She isn’t.)

Life goes on.

(It doesn’t.)

Crimes are stopped, lives are saved, everything goes back to normal.

(Well…)

The first time Winn notices the alert from the evidence room he thinks nothing of it. He checks the camera, looks at the spot with the flashing marker, and checks the records. A crate moved to another section without an updated file. He checks the location (he’s not an idiot), sees the crate, updates the log, and continues on with his day.

(He would have gone down to the room to check the contents, but a giant lizard trashing its way downtown takes priority. How was he suppose to know it was empty, how was  _he_  suppose to know something was missing?)

Because things go missing from evidence all the time. But  _things_ aren’t normally nano robot mind control devices.

(Cadmus has been in the DEO for  _months_. The DEO only found out after the Kryptonite incident and eliminated Marcus, but this is Cadmus. This is Lillian Luthor. In what world would Lillian only have one inside man?)

A month and a half after Jack, Lena wakes up with a bug bite on the inside of her left elbow. Lena thinks nothing of it. Puts some Neosporin on it, a band-aid to keep from scratching as a voice in her head reminds her that scratching leads to scars.

(She doesn’t think about how that voice sounds like Lillian, doesn’t think about the influence Lillian still has in her actions, her life. Doesn’t think about how some scars aren’t even visible.)

The first time Lena loses time, she doesn’t notice it. She woke up in her office one morning slumped over her desk, an empty bottle of scotch on the table beside her. It had been half full when she’d started. She only meant to have one drink after a hard day.

(A board meeting turning ugly, reports of Lillian possibly resurfacing, Lex sending  _another_  hitman after her, Jack, Jack, Jack –)

Doesn’t she deserve a drink (or three? Or four?) after everything she’s seen, everything she’s had to do?

She doesn’t notice the first time she loses time, but it happens again. And again.

And again.

She’s the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation with a schedule and workload that would make a computer cry. Blacking out from exhaustion is normal. Totally normal.

(Except it’s not, says a voice in her head.)

(Lena refuses to acknowledge it sounds like Jack.)  

It’s not until she ‘wakes up’ outside an old vault of Lex’s in the basement that Lena knows something, whatever is happening, isn’t from exhaustion. And it can’t be ignored.

She marks down what she remembers of the blackouts, the days, locations, where she woke up, when. Five times in two weeks is enough to establish a pattern. So on the night of the next ‘incident’ Lena goes home. Goes about her routine for bed. And she waits.

She’s nothing if not patient. She has all the time in the world.

(Some people don’t have her patience.)

(Some people don’t have time.)

(– Jack, Jack, Jack –)

She wakes up the next morning sprawled over the couch in her office, still in her pajamas, and Kara’s concerned face hovering over her. Lena brushes it off, citing work that called her in in the middle of the night for a new product they’re releasing.

Kara nods even as her eyes say she doesn’t believe Lena, and Lena doesn’t know if she wants Kara to press the matter or not.

She needs Kara to go, she needs to check the camera she set the night before.

(She wants Kara to stay, wants to take comfort in the presence of her friend.)

(Kara, being suffocated by the Nanobots. Jack, crying out in pain writhing on the ground.)

(– Jack, Jack, Jack –)

(But also,  _Kara, Kara, Kara_  –)

But Kara doesn’t press. She nods and hugs Lena one last time and is out the door with a promise for lunch sometime that week.

The last thing Lena sees is the sad, knowing smile on Kara’s face as she closes the door behind her. And then the world goes black.

\-----

Kara doesn’t save Jack. And it breaks Lena’s heart.

(Which breaks Kara’s heart, and Kara’s still processing what that means.)

This is Kara’s reality even a month and a half after it happens.

She had held Lena on her couch the day after, waiting for her to fall apart. Determined to be there if she did. Except she hadn’t.

Kara had brought her food, coffee, flowers, every day for two weeks. Determined to be there when Lena fell apart. Determined to catch her friend on the descent. Except Lena never does, and still, Kara waits.

(She hears Lena after she leaves. Lena always accepts the food and flowers with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes and gives appropriate answers in the conversations that follow, but Kara knows. Kara hears the breath that hitches when the door latches shut. Hears the suppressed tears as she moves into the elevator and the sobs into Lena’s pillow at night. Kara hears. Kara knows.)

(Kara wishes she could tell Lena that she understands that loss. Understands the grief that comes from losing someone so close to you when you already feel isolated in the world. Understands this pain Kara would never wish on her worst enemy, let alone someone as kind and loving as Lena Luthor. Kara understands. Kara wishes she could tell her.)

(Kara wishes Lena wasn’t sad because of the decision Lena had been forced to make. Kara is glad to be alive, and is sad that that feels unfair.)

But time goes on, and life continues, and Snapper is finally believing in Kara’s abilities. So she begins coming every other day. Then three times a week. Until it’s back to a schedule they had before, where Kara comes on their weekly lunch dates (days, days, their designated lunch  _days_ ) and the occasional interview.

(But she calls her. Every night. Calls and texts and talks to her because there is one thing Lena Luthor is not and that is alone.)

(Kara was the one to interview Lena after– After. She refused to let a more experienced reporter handle something so dedicated, wouldn’t trust any of them with something so important. Snapper, for once, had agreed without arguing.)

(Lena had shown nothing but support with Kara getting her job back but Kara could see the grief in Lena’s smile and hates how her return was accomplished even as Lena says it’s where she belongs.)

Maybe that’s why Kara doesn’t see it at first. Doesn’t see that something is…different.

Lena is shorter with her than usual at their lunches; Lena misses their lunch dates (days, lunch days) altogether; Lena takes hours to return her texts instead of minutes, and hours turn to days.

This is fine. 

(It’s not) 

These things are normal. 

(Sort of) 

These are things that Kara chalks up to….to a lot of things. Stress. Grief. Depression. 

Heartbreak.

(Because Kara understands this, and she wishes she could tell her, she does, she does, she  _does_.)

Kara understands being busy, understands how the schedule of a CEO with a product release rivals that of any superhero’s. So she waits, and brushes off the short visits, and gives Lena time.

Until she can’t give her time. Until Kara’s relationship with Mon-El comes to a head in the worst way. In a very loud, very public argument at the DEO that ends with his hand on her throat and Alex’s gun to his head.

(She doesn’t know what happens after he lets her go, doesn’t stick around to hear Alex unleashing unholy hell on someone who  _dared_  touch  _her_  little sister so violently. Kara leaves, flees to the one person who has always been there for her. The one person who could make her forget, make her feel anything other than foolish.)

(Because how did Kara not see this coming, she should have seen this coming, should have, should have, should have…)

Kara lands in the alley behind the building, barely remembering to change out of her suit before she’s up the stairs and outside Lena’s office. She barely hears Jess as she calls out to Kara before Kara is opening the door and collapsing on the white couch, utterly exhausted. The tears she’s been fighting back fall free and she buries her face in her hands as she babbles words that don’t make sense.

It’s not until she’s stopped to breathe several minutes later that she notices two things. Lena is still seated behind her desk. Lena is watching her with an almost irritated expression.

“Is there something you needed?”

Kara sits up straighter, wiping her eyes and then drying her hands before taking a minute to collect herself. Because Lena just hadn’t heard her. Hadn’t understood what she was saying.

(She tells herself this over and over, ignoring the twisting feeling in her gut that says otherwise.)

But then Kara looks up, she begins to tell Lena about her and Mike’s very public, very violent break-up. But Lena? Lena scoffs and interrupts her.

“I’m sorry, I thought you needed to tell me something  _important_.”

And goes back to her paperwork. Goes back to her paperwork, ignoring Kara as she watches her, mouth gaping and wide eyed with disbelief until Lena looks over and tells her, very slowly and eerily similar to Lillian: “You can go now.”

Jess looks up when the door shuts behind Kara. Kara, still standing there wide eyed and in shock and somewhere in the pit of Jess’ stomach a weight has lifted. Because finally, finally, Jess has an ally and it’s Kara Danvers.

“You saw it too, right?” Jess asks her. “It’s not just me, is it? This isn’t like her.”

Kara shakes her head because, no, it isn’t. She looks back at the office, at Lena now staring almost blankly at her monitor and she knows. She understands.

Something is very, very, wrong.

\-----

It took three weeks after stealing the nanobot auto-injector for Cadmus’ scientists to tweak the engineer enough to manage the side effects. Whereas before the bots were a switch, giving and taking free in an all or nothing manner, they now acted like a dial. Gradual amounts of control taken. Just enough to influence to influence a purchase or funding decision, but not enough to be noticed. Not immediately.

(Blackouts were an unfortunate side effect of anything over 60% but not every system is perfect)

Three weeks to tweak, two seconds to inject while Lena slept (Lena woke up with a bug bite and thought nothing of it). A day to infiltrate her system completely, and an instant to take full control.  An instant for Lillian Luthor to control one of the most powerful corporations in the world. 

And not a single Super to stand in her way.

**Author's Note:**

> Post 2x18 one shot originally written as a headcanon with a friend. 
> 
> Tumblr: ATongueTiedWriter


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